Bench Gives Bulls Big Boost

King, Nealy Help Hold Off The Rockets

February 20, 1990|By Sam Smith.

It was on the occasion of Abraham Lincoln`s nomination for president that the head of the nominating delegation, noting Lincoln`s 6-foot-4-inch height, said, ``We finally may have found a president we can look up to.``

And so it was Monday on Presidents` Day that things finally seem to be looking up again for the Bulls.

That`s because, in the Chicago presidential tradition, the Bulls delivered early and often in stuffing the Houston Rockets 107-102.

It was the Bulls` third straight victory and fourth in their last five games, improving their record to 32-20 (20-2 at home). Quite a contrast to the disastrous Western Conference trip during which they lost five of six.

``Hopefully, we can say we`re back on track, back on a roll,`` said the Bulls` leader, Michael Jordan. He delivered 30 points and nine assists, including eight straight points at the end of the third quarter, an especially welcome spurt after the Rockets had wiped out a 14-point halftime deficit and taken a seven-point lead.

``I told the team my father said, `The Lord loves a cheerful giver,`

`` related Bulls coach Phil Jackson, whose father was a minister. ``We gave away that lead faster than anyone I`d ever seen.``

But it was the Bulls` supporting cast, in Stacey King, playing for the injured Bill Cartwright, and Ed Nealy, who helped the Bulls recover and hold off the Rockets.

Which is somewhat surprising because the Bulls` bench for much of this season has been about as valuable as a vice president, a position the first vice president, John Adams, suggested be called ``His Superfluous

Excellency.``

But King and Nealy were anything but excess Monday. Rather, they were excellent.

``Stacey has been playing great,`` said Jordan, ``and Ed gave us a big lift with his rebounding and defense and hard fouls and great picks.``

But the biggest lift, or rather, lifts might have been the ones Houston players were giving their teammates who were picked or knocked down trying to get to the basket by the 6-foot-7-inch, 245-pound Nealy.

``I`m not out to hurt anyone,`` said Nealy, who celebrated his 30th birthday Monday with a season-high 10 points to go along with nine rebounds.

``But you don`t want to let them get to the basket too easily.``

And Nealy and King, who had 17 points and nine rebounds in battling Akeem Olajuwon, accomplished their mission.

Olajuwon led Houston with 32 points, 17 rebounds and 9 blocks, ``but he could have had 60 (points) if we hadn`t helped out against him,`` said King.

The anti-Akeem tactics also included Jordan or Scottie Pippen, who had 14 points, jumping at Olajuwon trying to block his shot, and Horace Grant, with a team-high 11 rebounds despite the stomach flu, blocking his way to the backboards.

``We had to double, which conceded other areas of the floor,`` said John Paxson, who had 13 points, 11 in the first quarter. ``But we were rotating better than we had been.``

And showing a deeper rotation with King, Nealy and Craig Hodges all scoring in double figures off the bench to give the Bulls seven players with at least 10 points.

That kind of output would indicate an easy victory, one the Bulls appeared headed to after taking a 30-17 first-quarter lead and extending it to 51-31 midway through the second quarter.

The Bulls led 58-44 at halftime, but they missed 12 of their next 15 shots. Meanwhile, Mitchell Wiggins, who had 24 points, got hot and the Rockets outscored the Bulls 27-6 in the first eight minutes of the third quarter to take a 71-64 lead.

``I told them they were playing unproductive minutes,`` Jackson related.

Which seemed to be enough as Hodges sandwiched two three-point field goals around eight Jordan points to give the Bulls a 16-4 run that gave them an 80-75 lead after three quarters, a lead they wouldn`t lose.